Showing off the children I don't have

I just wanted to share some halloween pictures of my nieces and nephews because i can't get over how cute they are! So this is Lanaea, she just turned two and had a birthday full of Care Bears and Wizard of Oz gifts. I can't get over how cute she is!

And here is the adorable little niece of mine with her family on Halloween, can you resist squeezing that little care bear?! She's all the way in Michigan and I want to fly there to kiss that cute little face of hers!

Adorable, i can't stand it!

This is Aubrey, she's just turned four and is the most expressive little girl I've ever met :) This picture was taken during a little photo shoot in my parents front yard, to show off the fall leaves.

This is Braeden and he's five and in kindergarten, he's the most unique, creative and hilarious little boy. He loves dressing up for Halloween and thinks about what he's going to be everyday of the year :)

This is Davis, he was just born in June and he's the happiest little ball of baby chubbiness.

Look at the face,i die!

And here's the bunch dressed up for Halloween, yes they are the Claus family, and little Davis is an elf, hahaha. I couldn't stop laughing when they told me this is what they were going to be!

So cute!

I love these kids and I wish we lived close so I could hug and kiss them everyday! I just thought I'd show off my nieces and nephews because I don't have any kids of my own to show off :)

Crandall House, Now Features Stephanie Davis

The First piece she made for us

"Staring Contest"

Her Gift to us, a version of our wedding announcement picture

Since having had our clothing store Ryan and I have acquired some beautiful artwork. When we first opened our store we commissioned Stephanie Davis (now Stephanie Gardiner) to do an art piece for us, and we wanted it to be finished before it opened so Stephanie busted out this beautiful and unique piece in TWO DAYS! She's amazing. Then we had another made, showed her some art pieces we liked and she came up with this spectacular piece, with a canvas she stretched herself. Then three more large paintings came along and we had a store full of her art. We had so many people want to buy her artwork from us but we couldn't part with them. She painted a portrait of Ryan and I for our wedding gift and then we acquired two more pieces from our friend Dan Ferris. Now we're happy to have all of these pieces hanging (some still not hung up unfortunately) in our house. We have a Stephanie Davis art gallery and we love it because it first of all reminds us of her, and secondly, it brings back our fond memories of living in Rexburg. Thanks for your wonderful talent Steph, you've made our home beautiful.

*We have four more but we are getting them framed, so we will show you those when they are completed. I love all of our paintings!

"You Say It's Your Birthday/It's My Birthday Too"

The Hotel

A Birthday Girl+A German Chocolate Birthday Cake+Birthday Candles+Birthday Wishes+The Faces of the People I love = Pure Happiness

So this a post that is long over due, but I thought it's better late than never. For my birthday this year Ryan and I went to visit my family in San Diego. He surprised me by renting a hotel room at the U.S. Grant in the Gaslamp downtown, which was gorgeous of course. Saturday night we decided to go have dinner in Old Town where they have some really yummy Mexican restaurants and then we'd meet up with my family for a movie afterward. Well we get to the restaurant and the hostess says, "Oh yes, you're party has already been seated right?" I was like what, who else would be here? And then we get upstairs and there are my family and friends surprising me for a birthday dinner. It was such a surprise, i had no clue! It was such a beautiful night and we had a beautiful view, it was perfect. After we ate they brought out what I thought was going to be a little birthday sundae or something, then they hand over this 12 inch triple layer German chocolate cake that my mom bought for me. It was ah-mah-zing! Unfortunately I don't have any pictures from that night, sad. Then on Labor Day, my actual birthday, we had yummy pizza and good food while the kids swam and tried to finish off the rest of the cake. I was showered with gifts, including a new camera, yeah and loads of jewlery and my most treasured, new running shoes, which were fitted professionally and feel like clouds when I run. What a wonderful birthday I had, I feel so loved!

back to school

I started my first day at Cal State Fullerton last Monday and I've been working at my new job for a month now. I've been thinking about what I really want to do when I graduate and seeing as that it's right around the corner I'm testing out my options. So I got a job working as a physical therapist aide, and it's been really great! I work with two therapists and an intern and I've been learning so much! I mainly apply heat and ice pack,s electric stimulation, ultrasound, teach patients how to, and help them, perform their exercises. I also clean a lot and do loads of laundry so when I'm done at night I am pretty much exhausted, and not looking forward to cleaning my own house or do my own piled up laundry. So in addition to a full school schedule and working 20+ hours a week, I've got a lot going right now (hence no blog posts).

But my classes are pretty fun so far. I'm taking Sports Psych, Measurement and Statistics in Kinesiology (still trying to figure out what that exactly means), Pearl of Great Price at the Institute, Intro to Kines, Tennis, Swimming, and History and philosophy of human movement. So by the end of this semester I will have the tennis skills of Maria Sharapova and be a swimming fiend like Dara Torres. Oh yeah and I'm thinking about doing the Athletic Training program, so in addition to physical therapy I'm thinking about that. By the way our mascot is the "Titans" and somehow that translated to an elephant? what?

*I got my hair done today and it feels fabulous. Don't you just love getting yours done too?

Our Summer Vaycay

Our pods we flew to Puerto Rico in. They were so amazing, they completely reclined.

Barbados

St. Lucia

The Volcano.

Sulfur smell

Sulfur enriched water, has healing powers.

Marigot Bay

Some friends we made on the ship.

Catamaran around Antigua.

Perfection.

St. Marten.

St. Croix

Here are some pictures of our vacation to the Caribbean. We flew into Puerto Rico, enjoyed a full day there and a tour from Ryan's brother Matt who served his mission in Puerto Rico. We got on the cruise ship that also carried 3500 other passengers. Our first full day on the ship was a sea day so we enjoyed laying out, reading books, and gossip magazines, getting sunburned, eating a fancy dinner complete with mystery theater and plenty of time to relax. Our first port day was in Barbados (where Rihanna lives, yeah!) and we had a tour around the island. The Barbadian people are amazingly nice, and very humble people. Then we finished our tour at a beach and paid for overpriced chicken strips and fries for lunch. I honestly believe that the rest of the world believes that frnech fries are the American staple, like rice is for Asia. Yikes! What fatties we must all be!

The second island was St. Lucia, and it was just absolutely tropical and gorgeous. I felt like I was in the rainforest. We took a tour around the island and drove into the mouth of a volcano, complete with the smelliest suflur hot pots. I seriously couldn't open my mouth for fear of tasting the sulfur, gross. It was pretty amazing though to actually be in the mouth of an active volcano. So very last spot we went to on the tour was Marigot Bay where the original "Doctor Dolittle" was filmed. Not that amazing, but it was still beautiful of course.

Antigua! We went on a catamaran out on the ocean and got to snorkel in their beautiful reefs. However, something out tour guides failed to mention was that we would also be privileged to swim with THOUSANDS OF JELLYFISH! No joke they were everywhere! As soon as we anchored at the sopt where we were to snorkel my brother in law looks over and says, "Um, there are hundreds of jellyfish in the water." So of course we all freak out, and freak out while we get in the water, and our tour guide nonchalantly says, "oh yeah, they sting, but you can just push them away with your hands." I was like, WHAT? They sting, but I can just push them aways, very comforting. Well the snorkeling was good, but I couldn't exactly relax while swimming through thousands of jellyfish. Anyway, we ended the trip with a visit to this amazing bay on the island, it was the most beautiful beach I'd ever been too. Just still and calm, so wonderful. Antigua was amazing.

Then we visitied St. Marten, we rode ATV's around the island and ended at a beautiful beach, with nice big waves, white sand, and turquiose water. We relaxed on the beach, ate lunch and headed back. I almost took out my mother in law on the way back, on accident of course, but it was a fun ride.

St. Croix was the last island we visited, we just wanted to end the trip relaxing on the beach. So we got on a small boat the rode us over to a small island, which cost us $4 a person to go about 50 yards both ways. What a rip off. Then we arrived and they said each chair and umbrella would cost us $5 to rent. I swear they would charge for oxygen if they could. We rented a kayak and paddled around the little island, going in and out of the sailboats. It was really fun! We ended up at a local restaurant and had amazing beans and rice with chicken, and Ryan decided to get crazy and ate goat. Which wasn't too different than lamb.

So we had an amazing time on the ship, saw lots of shows, ate amazing meals, and desert practically at every meal, and watched lots of people make fools of themselves at the karaoke lounge. I wasn't brave enough to do it myself unfortunately.

So that was our trip in a nutshell! We loved it, and were very lucky to go on it.